Horner also said at the time he published his hoax stories to make Trump supporters look bad.

“I thought they’d fact-check it, and it’d make them look worse,” Horner said. “I mean, that’s how this always works: Someone posts something I write, then they find out it’s false, then they look like idiots.

“But Trump supporters — they just keep running with it! They never fact-check anything! Now he’s in the White House. Looking back, instead of hurting the campaign, I think I helped it. And that feels [bad].”

He also said at the time he was surprised by how popular his articles were.